Rise of the Plaent of the Apes is a 2011 dystopian science fiction film from director Rupert Wyatt and starring actor and motion capture performer Andy Serkis.

I watched Dawn of the Planet of the Apes last week and, I gotta say, I was very impressed. You can read my review here.

Planet of the Apes, the original 1968 classic, is regarded as a pioneering film in science fiction. The twist at the end – spoiler, that the planet of the Apes is actually earth thousands of years in the future – remains a classic movie moment. I haven’t actually seen the original or any of its sequels, besides seeing the 2001 Planet of the Apes remake once on TV as a kid. The reboot trilogy – Rise of, Dawn of, and War for the Planet of the Apes – is considered one of the few instances that the prequels actually hold up. In fact, Dawn and War are said to be some of the best science fiction films ever made.

I watched Dawn first, even though it’s the sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Everything I’ve read says that Dawn is one of the cases of the sequel being better than the original. Would I be as impressed by Rise, the original prequel, as I was by Dawn?

In short, no, I still think Dawn is a better movie. But man, or should I say ape, Rise is still a dang good movie, and a unique one at that.

A Short Synopsis

William Rodman is a scientist working on a cure for Alzheimer’s. He’s personally invested because his father is sick. His test, ALZ-112, has shown miraculous results in test chimp Bright Eyes. However, Bright Eyes goes berserk during his presentation and the test is canceled. She’s killed while on her rampage. It’s revealed that Bright Eyes, though, was about to give birth. When Will has all the chimps put down, he can’t bring himself to do it to Bright Eyes’ infant son.

However, as he begins to raise this son Caesar, he displays remarkable intelligence, far above that of a now three-year-old human. Will also begins testing ALZ-112 on his father, who is able to recover from Alzheimers and even increase his skills and intelligence. Will meets a primate veterinarian and they begin to date while Caesar grows older.

Will’s father, though, begins to regress again. Will works on developing ALZ-113. However, he can no longer keep control of the adult Caesar, who hurts a neighbor while trying to defend Will’s father. Caesar is put in a primate shelter until Will can figure out how to get him back home. Caesar’s increased intelligence as well as his empathy and compassion allows him to eventually dominate the primate hierarchy, even though he hardens from abuse suffered at the hands of his caretakers.

What will ALZ-113 do to the primate test subjects? What will Caesar do when he inevitably outsmarts captivity? How will this become the Planet of the Apes? Watch and find out. Read on, though, for the strengths of this unique movie.

A Unique Movie

This movie is unique in following both Will Rodman and Caesar. This movie is unique in taking nostalgic moments and transforming them. This movie is unique in its ending.

First, the uniqueness of the characters. This movie follows both human scientist Will Rodman, performed by James Franco, and computer-generated chimpanzee Caesar, performed by motion-capture-whiz Andy Serkis. You might also know him as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.

For the first half, Will is definitely the main character. We see Caesar’s mother captured in the jungle, cluing us in to the fact that we will be following the apes. However, then we cut to Will’s lab. He’s pitching his miracle cure. He’s choosing to keep Caesar, teaching him. We see Caesar almost exclusively from his point of view, jumping through the trees or looking out a window. For the first 50 minutes of this movie, Will is the character driving most decisions and most choices.

However, at the 50 minute mark, we subtly shift to Caesar’s perspective. He sees Will’s father starting to regress and get yelled at by a neighbor for crashing his car. Caesar jumps in, injuring the neighbor. Will drops off Caesar at the primate shelter, which is Will’s point of view, but then we pick up with Caesar’s again. For the last 50 minutes of the movie, Caesar is the one driving most of the decisions. He tricks and fools his captors, his fellow primates, and even Will. Will starts developing ALZ-113, but most of the trajectory of that arc is out of his hands. It’s other people like his boss figuring out what ALZ-113 is doing, or how it will make them money. In the last twenty minutes of the movie, every major decision is made by Caesar while Will is along for the ride.

Without you even realizing it, this movie has switched protagonists on you. It does it brilliantly, naturally, and in such a way that you completely understand how both characters are growing apart. Yes, their stories are growing apart in the structure of the narrative – they’re not longer in the same locations, criss-crossing, but in two different locations. But they’re also relationally growing apart. I don’t really know of any movie that starts so centrally on one protagonist but then switches – not within ten minutes, not in the last few minutes, but halfway through while still keeping track of the previous protagonist.

Second, this movie is unique for taking nostalgic moments and transforming them. They’re littered all throughout the movie. Now, I’m no Planet of the Apes buff, but I recognize a number of them. The names of the characters reference characters in the 1968 original – Landon, Dodge, Cornelia, Caesar. There’s a new clip of a Mars space flight in the background. There’s others I’m sure I don’t know. None of those are totally transformative, to be honest.

But there is one that is. Spoilers ahead until the conclusion.

Again, I am no Planet of the Apes aficionado. But “Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!” is one of the most iconic lines in film history. In that moment, Taylor, the Earth astronaut who was in cryo-sleep for a thousand years only to go to a planet where apes rule mute enslaved humans. After being unable to speak due to a throat injury, Taylor’s first words after being recaptured are that famous line. The apes are in shock, the music swells, all of them stare at each other because their worldview has just completely changed. A human… A HUMAN… talks! It’s been parodied, redone, and remixed over and over again.

In Rise, abusive primate shelter worker Dodge Landon attempts to put down Caesar’s disobedience. He comes with a taser stick, managing to strike Caesar twice. Caesar begins out fighting him, dodging and avoiding. Finally, he grabs Dodge Landon on the arm.

“Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!” That might elicit a chuckle from the audience for those who are in the know. It did for me.

But then the camera switches to Caesar, for what feels like a bit too long. Caesar stretches, stands to his full height, widens his eyes as the music swells. “nnnnnnnNNNNOOO!” he shouts.

All of the apes and other human look on in total terror and awe, as Caesar beats Dodge Landon and screams “NO!” again to the gathered apes in their cages.

What could have been a moment of humor, just a bit of nostalgic key-jangling, instead is transformed. The layers are deep. Where last time, a human speaking was the shock and awe that completely rocked worldviews, this time an ape speaking is what completely rocks worldviews. Where last time, a human speaking was an act of frustrating defiance at being captured, this time an ape speaking was an act of rebellious defiance to escape captivity. Caesar would then start a rebellion, an uprising that stormed across San Francisco.

You don’t have to know any of that. That comment makes perfect sense from the abusive animal handler. But the more you know, the more interesting it becomes.

This describes the movie well. It’s taken its source material and done something new, unique, and different with it. Yes, it is a reboot, but it’s also its own story, with its own highs and lows and that only deepen if you know the source.

The final reason why this movie is unique is its ending.

There are movies that set up for a sequel, of course. Rise of the Planet of the Apes does, in a way. However, even if it hadn’t have gotten a sequel, it stands on its own as a prequel to the original.

The movie ends – again, more spoilers until the conclusion – with Patient One. Frank, an animal handler at Will’s lab, got sick from ALZ-113, sneezing up blood and eventually dying. He is Patient Zero. He sneezes on Will’s cranky neighbor, who turns out to be… guess what… a pilot. He is now Patient One of ALZ-113. As Caesar and friends flee into Muir Woods National Monument, we see the pilot travel onto his plane at the airport. The end credits are then a flyover around a digital version of earth, watching as cases flare up around the entire world of ALZ-113.

Of course, with COVID-19 only four short years ago, this image will be all too familiar to people now. However, the film predated all of that and still went with this bold choice of an ending.

Yes, the world falling apart sets up the original and a sequel. However, on its own, it is terrifying. It is a tragic ending, knowing Will’s actions led to the destruction of the human race. We know the world is about to fall apart before our eyes while Caesar and his apes eventually dominate the entire world. This ending is unique for how grim, how awful, how final it feels even as it opens up hundreds of new possibilities for the future.

What an ending. What nostalgia. What characters. What a film.

Conclusion

There is so much unique about Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It is well worth the watch to see how two main characters – one completely animated – are handled, how nostalgia serves rather than distracts, and how the ending will terrify you. It’s a good movie. And its sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, is a great movie.

What will War of the Planet of the Apes, the final film in the trilogy, hold? You’ll find out soon.

But watch Rise first and be amazed.